Self-discovery of network element refers to that a network element discovers existence of the network element itself in a network in process of establishing a base station, where the base station is a physical description and the network element is an abstract description of the base station in the network while both refer to the same thing. Said existence mainly shows in that the network element obtains its own IP (Internet Protocol) address in the network and other parameters including an IP address of a gateway, a subnet mask, an IP address of a network manager and the like. The purpose of the self-discovery of network element is to enable the network manager to find the base station in the network and establish a connection with the base station.
At present, there are mainly two ways of self-discovery of network element.
One is to perform manually, by engineering personnel, a basic configuration at both a base station side and a network manager side, wherein parameters of the basic configuration may include: an IP address of a base station, an IP address of a gateway, a subnet mask, an IP address of a network manager, and other basic parameters needed for operation of the base station;
But the above way of implementing the self-discovery of network element has the following problems:
complicated configuration process: the basic configuration needs to be performed simultaneously at the base station side and the network manager side;
elaborate parameter configuration: all data configured at the base station side and the network manager side are based on layout data and needs to be put in manually; and the process is very troublesome when a large number of base stations has to be established; and
error-prone configuration process: error-proof manual input of the parameters cannot be guaranteed in the configuration processes of the base station side and the network manager side; and a major failure may occur when configurations of a certain key parameter at the base station side and the network manager side are inconsistent.
The other way is to implement the self-discovery of network element by configuring a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server (including a multi-level DHCP), but the process of parameter configuration in such a way is rather complicated, where not only parameters of each network element have to be configured manually on the DHCP server, but the layout data also have to be imported into the network manager; if the DHCP server and the network manager are deployed separately (i.e., not at the same location), the configuration process involves travel or coordination between two locations; according to circumstance of a pilot office, the office is generally unwilling to turn on broadcast forwarding of a switch for fear of a broadcast storm; even if the office is willing to turn on the broadcast forwarding of the switch and a firewall does not screen a broadcast message either, in the case of co-operation and co-maintenance of devices of multiple manufacturers, there may still exist questions like how other manufacturers would use the DHCP configuration and whether the DHCP configuration is consistent or in contradiction, etc. It seems that the contradiction can be solved by formulating a regulation, but selection and use of the DHCP service is in fact highly individual and diverse and thus cannot be regulated in practice.